MAP CELEBRATES ITS 500th Edition of MAP NEWS (Formerly Late Friday News)

But they still remain under serious threat.

Freedom for the mangroves is a symbolic name that urges to “liberate” the mangroves that are illegally destroyed and suffocated by the dams of the shrimp ponds that forbid the natural exchange of brackish and fresh waters.

Freedom for the mangroves jailed by industrial shrimp infrastructure that bans their normal development and exchange of energy, and finally

Freedom for the areas that have been destroyed and need to be reestablished to their original ecosystem.

Under the slogan “Freedom for the Mangroves“, this year 2004’s campaign that commemorates the 26th of July, is committed to strengthen the local organizational processes and to generate favorable public opinion for the defense and community management of the mangroves.

And yet, to this day, Ecuador continues to struggle for their forests – in last year’s Issue #460 we were still covering the industries devastation of mangroves in Ecuador

In Ecuador, home to the tallest mangrove trees in the world (forty meters), Dr. Stuart Hamilton of Salisbury University studies the ecological and sociological impacts of mangrove decline. His work emphasizes the impact of shrimp aquaculture, an industry that has exploded in Ecuador over the last forty years. After clearing mangrove forests, farmers cultivate shrimp in large pits dug into the sediment. The pits are crowded and subject to disease, so the farmers infuse them with antibiotics and pesticides. When they become too toxic and diseased to be viable, farmers clear more mangroves and dig more pits, leaving thousands of acres of abandoned, toxic shrimp pits behind them. Ecuador is the second-largest supplier of shrimp to the United States. READ MORE

….

THREAT #2 – PALM OIL PLANTATIONS
More recently, as the demand for palm oil has increased, a newer threat has emerged. Mono-cultured forests of palm oil trees are replacing naturally occurring mangroves at an alarming rate. As early as 2012 MAP News (Issue 299) reported on fishermans’ concerns about the restoration of these impacted areas.

North Sumatra Fishermen See Mangroves in Their Future

INDONESIA – Fishermen in North Sumatra’s Langkat district have begun replanting mangroves on 1,200 hectares of coastal land previously cleared for oil palm plantations. Activists from the Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Association (KNTI) and the Fisheries Justice Coalition (Kiara) said at a press conference in Jakarta on Sunday that they hoped to restore the mangrove ecosystem in Pangkalan Berandan subdistrict and possibly set aside 300 hectares as a conservation area. Tajuruddin Hasibuan, head of the KNTI’s Sumatra chapter, said fishermen in seven villages in the area were involved in the initiative. “When you consider how important the mangrove ecosystem is to the traditional fishermen, you need to consistently fight against the expansion of oil palm plantations in the area,” he said. “We realize that what we’re doing is just the start, and that there are other areas where plantations are expanding and mangrove swamps are deteriorating.” READ MORE

“Apart from this regular oil spill crises, we also suffer resultant effect from gas flaring . We had two forests reserves: Otumara and Uremure. Now both have been totally lost to oil spill and dredging of canal to flow stations. Our sacred forest has also been violated; Abura trees used for making furniture have been destroyed over the years. Lack of health facility in this area is a big problem.”

—Eghare (Chief) Wellington Ojogor (Ugborodu Community)

“Chairman Council of Elders and a Seasoned Surveyor”.

SOURCE – MAP NEWS ISSUE 88, Oct. 15, 2001

The Toxic Legacy of 60 Years of Abundant Oil

NIGERIA – It’s one of the most polluted spots on Earth, and prospects of a turnaround only get worse as Covid-19 guts a global industry. In the past decade, crude has gone from providing about 80% of all Nigerian state revenue to about 50% last year. This year, with the global economy hit by the coronavirus adding to existing trends as the world shifts away from fossil fuels, the government projects an 80% decline in oil income. That creates a bitter reality for residents at the center of Africa’s biggest petroleum industry: they’ll have little help cleaning up pollution that’s deprived entire communities in the Niger River delta of their fishing and farming livelihoods. “Over so many years both the government and the oil companies have made promises to clean up without doing so,” said Pius Waritimi, an art teacher and environmental activist based in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt.

“In just more than a year under the current administration of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, at least 42 environmental defenders have been killed. – MAP News Issue #431